Mayor Denies Politician Claim that Acapulco is Bankrupt

(Acapulco, AN 15 November) José Luis Ávila Sánchez, the interim mayor of Acapulco, denied allegations recently made by gubernatorial candidate Ángel Aguirre and reprinted in the press that the city is essentially bankrupt. “On the contrary,” he said, “we have no outstanding obligations with any employees. True, all city governments these days are facing financial problems, but this should not surprise us.” He added, “Yes, the city has an annual operating deficit of $200 million pesos, and CAPAMA is $450 million in the red . . . but in spite of the crisis we are paying our commitments and we are undertaking more than 1000 construction projects this year, representing $1.4 billion pesos of investment in infrastructure . . . more than the preceding two administrations taken together.” The mayor was interviewed after a city council meeting last Saturday evening. The accusation of bankruptcy and the response appears to be an exchange of political fire during an electoral campaign. Mayor Ávila Sánchez said that the “bankruptcy” to which Aguirre was referring was the financial mess inherited by mayor-elect Añorve when he took over from the two previous city administrations, represented by Aguirre’s own political party, the PRD. The mayor also defended the performance of the Añorve administration as it concerned CAPAMA, the embattled water utility. “They left us a broken entity, with zero investment in public works and a treatment plant that could not even purify clean water. For a year and a half Acapulqueños had untreated running water. Today the treatment plant is operating to capacity and the facility at Aguas Blancas, which had been at zero, is now one of America’s most modern.” The mayor added that 20 kilometers of new water lines have been laid. He said the comment from Aguirre showed a lack of understanding of the facts. “Aguirre was given bad information,” he said.